Power supplying Quadro rtx5000

Hello,

it's generally not a good thing to split a single rail, you will get instability under load or worse, damage the psu

Have you considered adapting the sata power line for the 5.25" bay with an adaptor, to power the creative card thus freeing the 2nd gpu power cable ?

From Google's AI:

The Dell Precision 7820 Tower workstation almost exclusively came equipped with a 950-watt (90% efficient, 80 PLUS Gold certified) power supply unit (PSU). In some baseline configurations with specific processors, a smaller 425W power supply was also offered, though the 950W unit is by far the most common and supports the highest-tier hardware.The 950W PSU is hot-swappable, lockable, and designed for tool-less removal from the rear of the chassis. This high-wattage option enables the workstation to support up to 600W of total graphics power (like dual 300W GPUs in single-CPU configurations).You can check the official documentation on the Dell Precision 7820 Tower Owner's Manual for more technical details.

If you are looking to replace or upgrade your unit,

1. I can:Provide details on the GPU power cables available
2. Tell you the exact part numbers (such as CXV28 or H950EF-00)Check compatibility with your specific CPU and GPU setup
3. Let me know what you are looking to do with your system!

@mazzinia_​

A stupid question: Both gpu lines are 320W (2 x 160W) in dual cpu configuration, according to the technical specification of 7820. Let assume if I use both power lines to power the rtx 5000 (230W power consumption), can I split one of the lines to power the Sound Blaster AE-9 too, which is 75W. I am thinking of that idea, because the power drain from the 5,25 inch sata power cable is 54W, according to Gemini, which is not enough to power supply the AE-9. Will it work this way or again there will be power problems?

Best regards. 

@Vankata I got your post by email but is not yet showing here, so bear with me answering in advance.
It's a good question, the one you made, and I think it depends on a few things : each rail is 160W, and the rtx5000 draws 230 in total , so 115W at peak on each rail.

If you split one rail and assume the full 75W ( but is that soundcard actually using 75W on full load ? ) that rail would have a total of 190W on full load.

The question here is how the rtx5000 is designed to draw the power. If it strictly balances 50/50 between the 2 rails you get 115w/190w on a theorical full load, and in theory would exceed the rail power limit of 160
If it doesn't strictly balances and instead focuses on getting the 230w even with an uneven mix, we would have the situation where one rail is 145 and the other is 85+75 (aka 160). In such case there would be no power draw exceeding the imposed limitations

@Vankata​ add on, think maybe the whole picture is a bit different ... we forgot that the pci-e 16x slot provides power to the card too, and is part of the total wattage .
The pci-e slot should provide 75W , so the 2 aux lines would provide 155 combined, or roughly 77.5/77.5
77.5 + 75 < 160, so probably should work

@mazzinia_​ 

Yes, the PCIe slot provide additional 75W to the gpu. Together with one of the power rails the combine power is 235W (160 + 75), exactly as the needed power for the rtx5000. 

According to Gemini PRO, if it can be trusted:

"It is absolutely not designed to draw a 50/50 balanced load from its power connectors, for a few key structural and electrical reasons:

1. Asymmetric Connectors: Unlike some consumer cards that use two identical 8-pin connectors, the standard Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 features one 8-pin connector and one 6-pin connector.  The 8-pin connector is rated to provide up to 150 watts. The 6-pin connector is rated to provide up to 75 watts. Because the physical cables and their ATX safety ratings are fundamentally unequal, the card is inherently designed to pull a heavier load from the 8-pin connector.

2. The Motherboard Pull: People often forget that GPUs don't just get power from the cables. The Quadro RTX 5000 draws up to 75W directly from the PCIe slot on the motherboard. With a total maximum board power of 265W, the load is actually split three ways (PCIe slot, 8-pin cable, and 6-pin cable), making a clean 50/50 split between the cables mathematically impossible.

3. No Active Load Balancing: Just like the newer consumer cards, the Quadro RTX 5000 does not have intelligent, active load-balancing hardware on its PCB. The 12V inputs from both cables feed into a common power delivery plane on the board. The current follows the path of least electrical resistance across the available pins, leaning heavily on the 8-pin connector since it provides more 12V and ground wires than the 6-pin."

So, in this case would it be possible to power the rtx5000 only with one power rail with a splitter and the PCIe slot?

Best regards.

@Vankata again answering before it shows online. You can try. (Personally I would split the rail going to the soundcard. Also en passant, I don't know how much I would trust AI answers... to give you an example I got multiple times back that the real power requirements of the creative card from that pci-e plug is at most 25w and that resorting to use that cable vs taking from a sata molex is just to have the best current without ripples to ensure the best audio fidelity. Same time the AI insisted that on a workstation class power supply, using the sata power line would be already of the required quality. Bottom line...  I don't trust it due to an error could cause damages to the soundcard for all I know )

@Vankata​  Does your soundcard use a separate connection?

@Vankata , @mazzinia_, I think your graphics power calculation is incorrect.  When the spec said it supports 2x 300w or 2x 160w, it was included 75w slot power, not just total wattage from the cable line.  But, using both lines for a 230w RTX card + 75w soundcard is still within power consumption a 950w can support.  I've been running similar specs with an RTX 6000 (260w) and Asus Hyper RAID card which pulls about 54w to support x4 NVMe drives and active cooling fan.  OP can use splitter adapter 0G22MM.  It's dual 8-pin, but it will support 6-pin for the video card and 6-pin for the soundcard as @mazzinia_ suggested. 

@bradthetechnut yes, the AE-9 has a PCIe 6-pin connector and it's mandatory require to support the external audio control module ACM.

Thanks for all suggestions and opinions. When the rtx5000 arrive I will use the two gpu power lines to power supply it and split one of the lines for power supplying the AE - 9. 

Best regards.